86 
[ Hep. iSTo. 564. ] 
ucts. Some species scarcely extend beyond peculiar limits in their native 
country; other species have been dispersed over many lands, both by acci¬ 
dent and by design ; some spring up singly, or in clusters, over arid plains; 
some ascend the mountains, several occupy the shores and islets of the 
ocean, others love the humid banks of rivulets and streams; and others de¬ 
light in miry marshes and swampy forests. It is pro!'able that the num¬ 
ber of species thus scattered over the face of nature will be found to 
amount to one thousand or more ; although not more than 175 are actu¬ 
ally described, of which 119 are American, 42 Indian, and 14 African 
species. The properties and products of the Palms are of the most es¬ 
sential and most diversified utility to man in all countries, where they fol¬ 
low or precede his footsteps. They yield flour and yeast, sugar and 
wine, oil and vinegar, milk and butter, wax and resins, fruits and medi¬ 
cines, utensils and weapons, thread and cordage, paper and clothing, fur¬ 
niture and habitations. The present remarks are however intended sole¬ 
ly to invite public attention towards the Ticu Palm of marshy spots in 
Brazils, to the Morriche Palm of the inundated delta of the Oronoco ; and 
to the Gomuty Palm of marshy forests, in the Indies, especially in refer¬ 
ence to the value of their leaves and fibres for textile materials'and do¬ 
mestic manufactures. 
SISAL HEMP.-AGAVE SISALANA.-PINE-APPLE TRIBE. 
1. There are many species of Agave and of analogous fleshydeaved 
plants, natives of the New World, besides the Agave Americana, and other 
species, naturalized in the Old World, which can readily be distinguished, 
eithei by the external characters of their leaves alone, or by still more im¬ 
portant differences in their interior organization. 
2. There are numerous species of Agave whose green living leaves 
yield valuable foliaceous Jibres, dlEexmg both in quantity and quality; 
but the species which- are cultivated in Yucatan for those fibres alone 
are the most valuable fibrous-leaved species whose history is accurately 
known. 3. There are one or more' species which are cultivated on the 
. Mexican mountains solely for the inebriating juice of their undeveloped 
stalks ; but the leaves of these species do not yield valuable fibres either 
in quantity or quality, which would justify their cultivation for their foli- 
aceous fibres alone. 4. The Agave americana of Europe is not the same 
species as the fibrous-leaved of the hot low lands of Yucatan ; 
nor is it yet the same species as the juicy-stemmed Maguey s of the cool 
highlands of Mexico ; nor does it even belong to the same genus as the 
pita-leaved Ixtla of the shady forests of Goazacoalcos ; and hence that 
the contradictory Humboldt and his credulous copyists have perpetrated 
pernicious errors in attributing the Mree different Mexican substitutes 
for the Vine, the Hemp,and the Flax of Europe, ioone distinct species of 
Agave, itself naturalized in Europe during centuries-. 
4. Although the flattering illusion of a wonderful combination of oppo¬ 
site properties in one and the same plant is now necessarily destroyed, yet 
the best species of the juicy-stemmed Agaves, and of the coarse fibrous¬ 
leaved Agaves, and of the fine fibrous-leaved Bromelias, all merit an im¬ 
mediate introduction and extensive propagation in Florida, and a gradual 
acclimation throughout the worst arid soils of all our Southern States. 
